The parvovirus known as cutavirus appears unlikely to play a pathogenic role in primary cutaneous B- and T-cell lymphoma, based on data from 189 biopsies.
Although researchers have long suspected viruses of a role in primary cutaneous lymphomas, “all of the so-far-suspected viruses including retroviruses, herpesviruses, and polyomaviruses have failed to reveal a consistent association with both cutaneous B-cell lymphoma [CBCL] and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma [CTCL],” wrote Alexander Kreuter, MD, of the department of dermatology, venereology, and allergology at Helios St. Elisabeth Hospital Oberhausen, Germany, and his colleagues.
In a research letter published in JAMA Dermatology, the researchers analyzed 189 paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens from 130 adults with CBCL or CTCL.
Overall, cutavirus DNA was identified in 6 (3.2%) of the 189 lymphoma biopsies and in 6 (4.6%) of 130 patients. Cutavirus was identified only in male patients with mycosis fungoides, and no cutavirus was identified in patients or biopsies without mycosis fungoides, the researchers noted. Viral DNA loads in the cutavirus-positive biopsies ranged from 1.3 to 85.0 cutavirus DNA copies per beta globin gene copy.
The findings were limited by several factors, such as the lack of biopsy samples for some lymphoma subtypes and the availability of a single specimen from most patients, the researchers noted. However, the analysis of a large number of samples suggested that cutavirus is not associated with the development of most primary cutaneous lymphomas, they said.
The study was funded by the German National Reference Center for Papilloma- and Polyomaviruses. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.
SOURCE: Kreuter A et al. JAMA Dermatol. 2018 Jun 27. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2018.1628.